E.A. McKenzie's Blog

Writing tool #1

Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar at Poynter Institute HERE or HERE writes a seriies of fifty tips aimed at improving your writing skills. I'm going post some highlights from his articles here. Refer to the above links for more.

Writing Tip Number 1

Begin sentences with subjects and verbs, letting subordinate elements branch to the right. Even a long, long sentence can be clear and powerful when the subject and verb make meaning early.

A reporter writes a lead sentence with subject and verb at t...

Excerpt

This is an excerpt from That Girl. It's still a major work in progress.

Drako

We’d drifted apart after middle school, rather, she sank my boat when she sold her soul to the school elite and became the queen of King City High. Even now, years after I’d scampered away with my tail between my legs; Halle Winters will always be that girl for me. You know, the untouchable one little boys dream of and then grieve over for the rest of their lives.

http://noveliststhoughts.blogspot.com/

Oops

Rule number one: Check your own stuff before complaining about something.

In my previous post I was complaining about the word verification process you have to go through to post a comment on some of your blogs, the CAPTCHA. I'm a little embarrassed to say, I had it set up on my own blog. I don't remember doing it but I vaguely remember blogger sending me a message about security and spam. I may have ignorantly affirmed it without first checking it out. My bad. Suffice it to say, I have corre...

CAPTCHA-- the bane of my existence

"Capture" and standing for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart," CAPTCHA.

Why oh why won't these things work for me. I'm not sure if it's some security things on my computer or if I'm really so stupid, I can never get these things to work for me. I've tried to comment of some of your posts, out there in blogsville, but am forced to give up after twenty or thirty tries. It's frustrating. So that's why I haven't been able to communicate with some of you....

Word-painting

Good Monday to you all. I don't have to work. Those words are a gift I give myself every Monday morning. I've been retired for almost two months and Monday mornings are the best now. I hope your Mondays are as pleasant, even if you aren't retired. Here's my Monday morning thoughts.

I've noticed lately that it's hard to know when too much word-painting is, well, too much. I'm working on a particularly emotional scene in my novel, That Girl. How much crying is too much? Where do you draw the li...

Procrastination and doubt

Hi again. It's good to be alive, isn't it? I've run across a website for cat lovers. I have had cats in my life and loved them, but when my last cat died, I said enough. It broke my heart. But I love looking at pictures of cats. They are so innovative and entertaining. Below is an example of what you can find on the site.

My husband and I have bought our retirement home. We actually bought it last December. Last month was the first time we'd spent any time enjoying it. We're not ready to move...

Stickman

While cruising for inspiration, I came across a website that had me drawing a stick man. When I finished that little task, I hit the done key and the stick man went into action. He came upon a box with a lock. "Hmm," he says, "draw me a key." Let me summarize, he came across a curious box, the box became the goal, the key the solution. Problem solved. Except the box popped open and a dragon popped out. You might call the dragon an antagonist. Now we have a compelling situation. The stick man...

In Transition, slathered with hope

You may not remember because I've been absent from the blogging world for so long, that I was going to retire and relocate back to the Northwest to the home we bought way back last December. Wow, has it been nearly nine months? I could have had a baby by now. It's physically immpossible, however. Slowly, we are dismantling from one location and re-establishing in another. We're moved into our new home, but still need to put the other on the market. But, there's work to be done. We've been in...

Bum's Rush, The Novel, (An Excerpt)

This is the time I've been looking forward to for years--being able to continue my blogging and promoting my books, not to mention writing them. It will be easier since I no longer have a job to take up most of my time with.

I'm going to post segments of Bum's Rush for your inspection in hopes of wetting your appetite to pop over to Amazon.com and check out the "Look Inside" option to read more excerpts.

I'll also be talking about my new novel, That Girl. I'll occasionally post some excerpts...

Happy Mom's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. I didn't realize it was mom's day until my husband wished me a happy Mother's Day. I'll hear from my kids today, but we don't exchange gifts. This is the second year I won't be making a call to my mom. Still, I'll always think of her every year on this day.

I just opened a new file for my WIP. I call it Draft 3000. It seems like I've written that many revisions. This will be the fourth. Listening to that inner voice that nags me, you all probably...